Life’s Twists and Turns
By Christine Leonard
Douglas Wall, 1917
For 180 years horses played a role in my Wall ancestors’ lives, starting with my great-great-grandfather, who as an 18-year-old groomsman, was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1835. William Wall’s son, Randolph (my great-grandfather’s brother), settled with his wife Margaret near Clermont in 1908. They raised seven sons, losing two in accidents associated with horses, Douglas and Rupert.
In 1919, 13-year-old Douglas was rounding up brumbies. Deep cracks often zigzag across the pancake dry trodden earth. Douglas’ horse caught its hoof in one such crack causing them to tumble. The local paper ran a story ‘A Sad Week In Clermont’. An extract reads:
“It appears Douglas rode away at about 7 o’clock to bring up the horses, and as he had not returned half-an-hour later his brother Rupert went to look for him, and soon discovered him a little more than half-a-mile away from the house lying dead beneath a horse, which was also dead. ”
Rupert Wall
Rupert, 31 years of age and an experienced rider in the district races, was leading some horses just broken-in through a rail-yard. This extract described the incident:
“Mr. Wall had saddled one in the yard and was leading it through the gate to mount it outside when the horse rushed through the gate past him and kicked at him the hoof striking him on the right side of the head. The right ear was badly lacerated and torn almost completely from the head………the trip back to hospital with the dangerously injured man was a very slow one,…...The four wheels of the car were deflated about half to try and obviate bumps on the road and the patient, who was conscious, was given every attention, but at Butchers Creek, about four miles from Cloncurry, he lapsed into unconsciousness.”
Despite the family’s loss, Wall descendants continued in the tradition of riding and competing on horses.
